


Ice And Cold

by padfootagain



Category: Chronicles of Narnia (Movies), Chronicles of Narnia - All Media Types, Chronicles of Narnia - C. S. Lewis
Genre: Angst, Angst and Feels, Angst with a Happy Ending, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Narnia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-07
Updated: 2018-12-07
Packaged: 2019-09-13 18:32:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,554
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16897782
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/padfootagain/pseuds/padfootagain
Summary: After a fall on a frozen lake, you are brought back to the Castle unconscious. The following days are nothing but horror for Caspian as he wonders if you will survive.





	Ice And Cold

**Author's Note:**

> Watch out for angst and feels… I would get tissues if I were you, I needed some! Hope you like it, tell me what you think about it :D

He brushed the snowflake off of your nose, his fingers frozen but soft against your skin, and you smiled.

You held him in your arms, letting him wrap the warm blanket around you and he let out a low chuckle.

“Do you want us to head back to the Castle, my love?” he asked softly in your ear. “You’re cold.”

“No, not yet,” you shook your head. “I love the snow.”

“But you’re shaking.”

“Caspian, please…”

You looked up at him, pouting, and you knew he could never resist you when you looked at him that way. He heaved a sigh.

“Alright, but we’ll soon get back. I don’t want you to catch a cold.”

You rolled your eyes.

“Always overprotecting me, right?”

“Always.”

He brushed the back of his fingers against your cheek as you exchanged a smile.

“I love you,” he said softly, his warm breath forming a little cloud between the two of you.

You went on your tiptoes to kiss his lips. They were cold from winter, but they were still soft and reassuring.

“I love you too, Caspian.”

He ran a hand through your hair.

“Why would my Queen want to do now?” he asked with a grin on his handsome face.

“There is one thing we _must_ do before we head back to the Castle.”

“And what could that be?”

You slowly took a step back, freeing yourself from his warm and protecting embrace. You had a devilish smirk on your lips and a mischievous glint alit in your eyes and Caspian knew that this meant trouble…

The next second, a snowball was hitting his shoulder.

He didn’t move at first, merely looking at his shoulder now covered with the white powder, and you waited for his reaction.

“Are you sure you want to play this game with me?” he asked, slowly turning towards you.

You nodded, grinning, and he could see that you were struggling not to laugh.

“You want to engage a snowball fight with the King? With the leader of the Narnian army? Are you sure?”

You merely bent down to pick up more of the frozen water and to mould it in a small ball, still grinning.

“As you wish then…” Caspian smiled.

When he bent down to pick up some snow, you missed him, trying to throw your snowball at him.

His first try hit your cheek, making you cry in surprise and laugh.

Soon, you were both covered with snow, not even caring about forming snowballs anymore, and merely throwing as much snow as you could towards the other.

When he tried to grab your arm, both of you laughing like mad, you took a step back, before turning around and running through the woods.You could hear Caspian running after you, his boots falling with a hushed noise into the snow, his laugh ringing throughout the white trees.

You didn’t care about the cold wind cutting your cheeks, your running through the woods was making you feel warm.

You didn’t think about which direction you were heading to. You didn’t care about the trees you were passing by, nor the purple crocuses that pierced the white layer at your feet. You were laughing too much to pay attention to your surroundings. You were too happy and light-hearted to notice anything but Caspian running behind you.

When you stepped on the ice, you didn’t notice it. The layer of snow was thick enough for you not to feel the difference, and you kept on running for a while.

But Caspian saw it. He saw the line between the frozen lake and the shore. He saw the ice further away, where it wasn’t covered with snow.

And you were running on the frozen surface.

His eyes grew wide in horror.

“Y/N! STOP!”

You turned around at the sound of his voice, but as you took one more step backwards, your foot hit a very slippery surface and before your brain could register what was happening you were falling on your back.

When you heard the loud cracking noise, you first thought that it was the bones of your back breaking against the hard surface. But it wasn’t that painful and your fingers suddenly found something very strange on the ground underneath you like…

… like a crack in an icy surface.

When your eyes noticed the dark cracking that ran from underneath you to your finger, they grew very wide. You felt your heart suddenly rushing under your ribs and were left short of breath…

“Y/N! Are you okay?” Caspian cried from the shore.

He slowly walked on the ice, taking care at moving slowly and cautiously so that the ice would not break under his weight.

You didn’t answer.

“Y/N!” he cried again, panic making adrenaline rush through his veins.

“Caspian,” you called, and he heaved a relieved sigh at the sound of your voice. “Caspian, help me.”

“I’m coming,” he reassured you.

You propped yourself up on your elbows slowly, wanting to sit up, but the ice cracked even more around and underneath you, now dozens of narrow lines running through the solid water under you.

You looked at Caspian, completely panicked, your eyes full of fear, your gaze begging.

“Caspian,” you breathed, not daring to move again. “I can’t swim…”

“I know,” he said softly, cautiously taking one more step towards you. “Don’t move, I’m coming.”

“Caspian… No, you can’t, you’ll fall as well…”

“I won’t fall, and you won’t fall either,” he said firmly.

You wondered if he was trying to convince you or to convince himself.

He was just a few meters away from you now. He was almost there…

The sound was sharp and sounded like a macabre signal.

Caspian froze, and looked down at his feet.

The ice was breaking under his boot…

“Caspian, you have to go back to the shore,” you ordered, trying to hide the fear in your voice.

“Don’t be ridiculous.”

But when he tried to take another step, the cracking sound pierced the silence again, and he didn’t dare to move at the sight of all the thin lines that were running through the ice around him now.

“Caspian…” you breathed.

The ice cracked again underneath you.

You and Caspian exchanged a terrified glance.

“I love you,” you breathed, and his heart broke in his chest at the sound of your tone, it sounded like you were about to give up, like you were about to leave him… “Caspian, I love you so much…”

“Y/N, listen to me,” he said softly. “I’m going to get us out of here.”

“Caspian, I can’t swim.”

“Everything will be just fine. Just look at me. Keep looking at me. I’m coming.”

He took a step further, and winced at the sound of the ice partially breaking under his feet. But it was enough to carry him for now…

“Love, it’s okay,” he kept on reassuring you. “I’m coming.”

“No, no stop. You’ll get hurt as well.”

“You won’t get hurt.”

“I’m scared, Caspian…”

“It’s okay. I’m here. I’m here, and I won’t let anything happen to you. Do you understand?”

You nodded slowly.

He took two steps in a row but had to stop, feeling the ice cracking more and more underneath him, and for a moment, he thought the water would not carry him any further.

You moved ever so slightly, trying to move your leg away from the broken ice, but it only made things worse and you winced…

Caspian had no more than five steps to take and he would reach the ice that was breaking slowly under you.

“Caspian…” you breathed, your eyes growing wider and wider as the layer of solid water was cracking under you, you could now feel it bending under your weight. “Caspian…”

“I’m coming. Hold on.”

But the ice cracked again, louder this time and…

…it broke underneath you.

You heard Caspian screaming your name, but it was too late.

Your back was the first thing to hit the cold water, your head hitting the cracked ice as your chest and legs were drawn into the water as well, but you didn’t feel the rest of your body touching the icy liquid.

The second your head hit the ice, all was dark…

———————————————————–

“Y/N!”

He saw your body falling in the dark hole that had formed underneath you in a matter of seconds.

He didn’t hesitate. He didn’t care about falling anymore, it didn’t matter, he would have to jump in the water anyway.

He ran for the last few meters, and managed to let himself fall inside the whole you had created, although he knew that the pieces of ice he had been walking on seconds before were broken now.

The water was beyond cold. When he hit the freezing liquid, all the air was taken from his lungs, every one of his muscles tensing. He was paralyzed for a second, unable to move, unable to think, and the world was so dark around him, he thought he had passed out.

But then he could see clearly enough to distinguish the white halo of light above him. He looked down, trying to spot you.

It took him less than a second to see your body as it sank towards the bottom of the lake.

He forced his muscles to go back to work despite the cold that paralysed him. Every movement was painful, and he could feel his lungs burning, begging for air already. But he swam anyway towards the bottom of the lake, chasing after your motionless form that sank deeper and deeper every second… And every one of his movements was pure torture, cold burning his skin and slowing him down.

In just a few more movements, he had caught your arm, and was bringing you back towards the surface.

He could barely keep his eyes open when he felt the frozen wind against the tip of his fingers again.

The breath he took as the cold air hit his cheeks again was probably the deepest he had ever breathed in.

He managed to put you back on the ice, on a side that seemed the thickest. He struggled to get back on the ice as well. He laid there for just a second or two, exhausted, out of breath, shaking from head to toe because of the cold that bit his body. But then his vision was clear enough again for him to see your motionless form next to him. And there was so much fear running through his body that he couldn’t stay idly lying on the ice despite his exhaustion.

He crawled to you and turned you to your side, patting your back until no more water was leaving your parted lips. He decided that the next emergency was to get away from the lake. So he crawled towards the shore, pulling you after him, wincing hard every time the ice under the two of you cracked or made dangerous noises.

After several long minutes, you were both back on the snow, saved from the treacherous waters.

Caspian was shaking more than ever, his teeth chattering. He turned towards you.

“Y/N,” he called.

But your eyes were still closed. You were pale as sheet. Your lips were blue…

He tried to touch your cheek, but his fingers were too numb by now, and he couldn’t feel anything that he touched anyway.

He bent down, his ear merely inches away from your parted lips, and he listened closely. But your warm breath was such a shock against his frozen skin…

He heaved a sigh of relief. You were breathing.

He had to take you back to the Castle as fast as he could…

He held your head tenderly in his hands, calling your name again in a last attempt to wake you up. But then his fingers touched something warmer, and though he couldn’t feel what he touched, he felt the difference of temperatures.

He looked at his fingers, and found them covered with a sticky, red liquid…

His eyes grew wide in horror.

He turned you around slightly so he could take a look at the back of your head.

You were bleeding… Your head was bleeding…

“No…” he breathed, looking at your face again.

But he checked again, and you were still breathing.

There was not a single second to lose.

He took you in his arms, oblivious of his painful limbs, oblivious of his numb hands and feet, and he started to run through the trees.

He needed to find back his horse…

The run seemed to last forever, even if he didn’t have to hurry for more than a few minutes.

He struggled to put you on his horse, and then to climb behind you, but eventually, he managed to make the miracle happen.

He guided the horse through the trees and to the main road that led to the Castle.

His heart was beating so fast, he was so terrified… he couldn’t remember being so scared in his life.

He was holding you in his arms, your head resting on his chest. But your eyes were still closed.

He couldn’t find the strength to speak, to shake you, to do anything at all… He was too cold, and numb, and in pain, and panicked, and all his energy was already used to keep his eyes open…

His head was falling now and then, his eyelids too heavy for him to lift them up…

Finally, he could see the guards on sentry before the Castle…

He made sure you would stay on the horse, falling on the neck of the large animal, before he closed his eyes for good, and fell to the ground.

——————————————————————-

When he woke up, he was first aware of the scent of burning wood close to him. Then the familiar sensation of soft sheets under his fingers reached his brain. He could hear voices in the distance, but they were too far away for him to catch the meaning of the words that were spoken.

He forced his eyes to open despite his heavy eyelids. His skin felt like it was burning while the muscles underneath felt numb. He distinguished a ceiling, made of grey stones and covered with the reddened light of a fireplace nearby. The flames were cracking softly in the hearth, consuming the logs bits by bits.

He remained there, lying motionless in the bed and staring at the ceiling, for a while. He was too tired to think, or to remember what had happened, to analyse where he was, to realise what it meant that you were not by his side.

But once his brain was able to work again, his first thought was for you.

His heart rushed under his ribs at the memory of what had happened at the lake, at the sight of your unconscious face, at the feeling of your frozen body against his…

He looked around him, but you were nowhere to be found, he was alone in the room.

And it wasn’t his room, he recognized it as one of the guests’ bedroom.

He forced his muscles to get back to work and sat up, his head spinning hard, but he didn’t care.

He needed to find you. He needed to know where you were, if you were alright, what had happened to you…

He stood up slowly, holding the bedside table to keep his balance, and once the spinning of his head had waned, he walked to the door.

As he walked next to a chair, he recognized the clothes that rested there as the ones he wore when the accident had occurred. There was blood on his shirt…

He instantly looked away.

He opened the door to discover the doctor of the Castle talking with several of the Captains and Generals, along with some other of Caspian’s closest advisers.

They all turned towards their King with eyes full of worry. But there was something else in their gaze…

…It looked like pity.

“Your Highness, you must not stand yet,” the doctor admonished, trying to push Caspian back in the bedroom, but the King shrugged him off.

“I’m fine,” Caspian mumbled in response, although he could feel his head spinning dangerously again.

“You should rest, you look pale,” Reepicheep nodded, agreeing with the doctor.

But Caspian looked at the physician once more, staring at his deep blue eyes, and when he spoke again, the King’s voice was firm.

“Where is my wife?”

The whole group looked down at the ground, all of them remaining covered with silence.

But there was no time to lose…

“Where is the Queen?” he asked again, raising his voice slightly, but just enough for the doctor to react this time.

“She is in your room,” the elder man said slowly. “I’ll take you to her.”

During the whole walk to his bedroom, Caspian remained silent. He couldn’t summon enough strength to ask the question he dreaded so much before he was facing the closed wooden door of his bedroom.

“How is she?”

The doctor merely opened the door in response.

You were lying on the bed, covered with blankets. Caspian’s former professor was sitting by your side, and he looked up at the King with a desperate glance when the young man walked into the room. Caspian remained there, standing next to you for a while, not caring about the glances his professor and the physician were throwing at him, not caring about the snow that was falling in the night outside, not noticing the cracking sound of the fire in the hearth.

Your eyes were closed, your lips were still blue, a white bandage was encircling your head, you looked so pale in the red light of the bedroom…

Caspian raised his hand to rest on your fingers, but they were so cold…

A tear he couldn’t hold back rolled down his cheek.

“Is she…?” he breathed.

But the doctor shook his head.

“She’s unconscious. She doesn’t respond to any stimulus. She is like… asleep. Only she doesn’t seem to be dreaming. But she is not dead.”

“Can she hear us?”

“I do not know, Your Majesty.”

“For how long has she been like this?”

“You arrived at the Castle ten hours ago.”

“What happened?” Doctor Cornelius asked softly.

“We were playing,” Caspian whispered, “she just… she didn’t see that she was stepping on a frozen lake. The ice broke… I think… I think she hit her head on the ice when she fell in the water.”

The two elder men exchanged a sad glance.

“When will she wake up?” Caspian asked the physician again.

But the doctor shrugged.

“There is no way to know. In all honesty… there is no way to know if she’ll wake up at all.”

“But she’ll be fine, right?” Caspian asked, fear shaking his deep voice.

“I don’t know,” the doctor answered earnestly. “I reckon that… if she hasn’t woken up in a couple of days…”

He let his sentence suspended in mid-air, but it hurt Caspian all the same.

The King rested his brown eyes now drenched with tears upon your motionless face.

“Leave me alone with her,” he commanded.

“You must rest as well… ” Cornelius tried to reason the young man, but Caspian merely sat down on the edge of your bed, closing his fingers around yours.

So the two elder men left the room, leaving Caspian alone with you.

The King waited to hear the footsteps of the two men vanishing down the corridor to close his eyes.

And the tears then fell uncontrollably from his eyes.

He stroked your cheek softly, bending to approach his face from yours.

“My love, please…” he let out in a breathy whisper, his voice made hoarse by tears. “Please, if you can hear me… don’t leave me. I can’t go on without you. I can’t. I’m not strong enough to overcome this. I can’t… I can’t live without you. I love you too much for that, I couldn’t do it. I can’t do it. You have to survive this. I’m so sorry for everything… it’s all my fault. I should have never taken you there in the first place, I… Oh, but just… Don’t leave me. Love, please, wake up. Wake up…”

He let his head fall into the crook of your neck as his whole body was shaken by a sob.

Minutes turned into hours and the doctor walked back to the bedroom to see how his two young patients were. But he didn’t open the door, nor knocked. He merely remained there, standing in the middle of the corridor for a few minutes, feeling his throat tightening with sorrow, before turning on his heels and walking away. He reckoned that his King needed to be alone with you for a bit longer.

After all, Caspian was still crying…

———————————————————————————-

He never left your side. Hours turned into days, but Caspian refused to leave your room.

He kept his composure whenever he was not alone with you, although he was crying most of the rest of the time. He read to you your favourite book over and over again, his hand wrapped around yours, his voice trembling when he would start crying again, but he didn’t stop his reading. He merely kept on speaking the words to you in a soft voice, the salty tears falling on the pages. When he was finished with his reading, he kept on speaking to you, hushed whispers flying through the room, pleading for you to wake up, to open your eyes again, dropping sweet kisses on your lips…

But you never seemed to hear him as he begged you to wake up, and you remained motionless in the bed for days and days…

Caspian had just dried his cheeks once more when Cornelius walked into the room.

“Still no change?” he asked the King, and Caspian shook his head. “It’s been five days now…”

“I know,” Caspian nodded.

Cornelius sat down in a chair nearby.

“Most of the people in the Castle think that there is no hope left,” the old man said softly.

“She’s still breathing,” Caspian replied through gritted teeth.

“But she is not with us.”

Caspian didn’t reply. He was too busy trying not to cry again…

“Perhaps you should think about this possibility…”

“It’s not a possibility that I will ever think about,” Caspian interrupted his professor.

“If she is not with us, she is… like dead…”

“She’s not dead.”

“She wouldn’t like to be that way.”

“She’s still fighting, I know she is. She just needs more time. But she will wake up, you’ll see, she’ll wake up…”

Cornelius nodded, unwilling to hurt the King even more.

“Do you still read to her?” he asked, noticing that Caspian was holding a book in his hand.

“It’s her favourite book,” the young man nodded.

“What makes you think that she can even hear you?”

“I know she hears me.”

“Hope is important. Hope gives us strengths when all is dark around us. But hope is not reality.”

Caspian shook his head.

“I know she’ll wake up. She will wake up. And perhaps you’re right, perhaps she can’t hear me. But perhaps she can. And if she can hear me, then I reckon that it could help her to hear my voice, don’t you think so?”

Cornelius nodded, smiling.

“You’re probably right.”

They remained silent for a moment, before the elder man would speak again.

“Your duties have been awaiting you, though,” he said. “Your Kingdom needs you.”

“And I need her…”

“Your Majesty…”

“Professor I… I can’t. I just can’t. I’ll work twice as hard once she’s back to us, I’ll work as much as it is needed but… for now, _she_ needs me here. I can’t leave her.”

Cornelius nodded slowly, rising from his chair again.

“We all hope she will wake up, you know? We all miss her,” he breathed.

Caspian gave him a sad smile.

“Thank you.”

Cornelius stood up, patting Caspian’s shoulder in a reassuring manner, before walking out of the room again.

Caspian waited for the door to be closed again, before turning towards you.

He put the book down on his laps, and stroked your cheek softly with his thumb.

“Don’t worry, love, I won’t leave you,” he said softly, and his voice sounded like a vow. “I’ll stay with you until you’re awake again. Do you remember, one day, you told me that believing in something was already half making it true? Well, I believe in you. I know you’ll overcome this. We’ll overcome this together. You’ll see…”

But two more days flew by, and you were still unconscious…

After a while, Caspian started to wonder if he had not lost his mind. He kept on talking to you, and he asked himself if it was a healthy thing, or just some trick sorrow was playing on his mind. There were moments, during the darkest parts of the night - when the moon is not shining yet and the stars still shy in the sky, and yet the infinite ceiling is black as ink - when he could have sworn that he heard your voice calling his name. It always had the desperate tone it wore that day on the icy lake…

The more time flew by, the more he spent hours and hours wrapped in silence, playing the scene over and over again in his mind, watching you fall in the freezing water, hitting your head against the white surface as hard as stone… But he could never move, and you always disappeared in the dark waters.

From time to time, his mind would drift away towards older memories, happier memories of the two of you, bright moments that you had shared together and that brought dreamy smiles to his lips.

He remembered the day he first saw you, walking in the gardens. He remembered the warm rays of sunshine that fell upon you.

He remembered how you had stared at him with wide eyes when he had stumbled on his words to invite you at the ball to celebrate the anniversary of his coronation.

He remembered the way you seemed to outshine the candlelight that night, how you twirled with the music. You had danced with no one but him that night, and he had danced with no one but you…

He had never danced with anyone else but you ever since.

He remembered the first kiss you had shared, on a rainy day in the Royal Library, surrounded with dusty books and warm fires burning in the hearths.

He remembered his struggle against your parents, the nights you and him had spent together, hiding your love under the moonlight, talking together only in shushed whispers, until he could finally convince your mother and father to let go of you.

He could never forget how beautiful you were on your wedding day. Your long white dress that made you look unreal. Like a goddess. The grin on your face. The amazement and joy mingled in your eyes. Your soft lips pressed against his as you sealed this vow he had sworn never to break.

He would love you, and only you, all his life…

He remembered how shy you were on your wedding night. How peaceful you looked the next morning when you woke up in his arms.

He remembered how happy you were when you decorated all the Christmas trees of the Castle with him.

How could he forget the mischievous glint that appeared in your eyes when you prepared a surprise for him.

The softness of your skin.

The gentleness of your voice.

The kindness you wore when he was overwhelmed by his duties.

The strength that made him get back on his feet every time he fell.

He remembered every single moment he had shared with you. He remembered everything about you.

And the more he thought about it, the more he knew he would never be able to live without you.

At the birth of the eighth day, when dawn slowly pierced the dark veil of the night, the light made pale by the cold, Caspian’s hope flinched. It started to falter.

He had barely eaten anything for days and days, when he fell asleep it was out of exhaustion. Somehow, the tears had stopped the day before. Perhaps he had wept too much and now his eyes were too dry, no tears were left to be cried. Or perhaps he had fallen in another step of sorrow. He felt a bit numb now, although everything seemed to hurt. Even breathing was painful.

He looked at you again, tracing the outline of your face with his fingertips. And when he spoke his voice was just a weak whisper, barely audible above the cracking flames in the nearby hearth.

“Love, I don’t think I can hold on anymore,” he said slowly. “I’m going mad. I think I’m losing my mind. They keep saying that you won’t wake up. They keep saying that there’s no hope left, and… I’m trying so hard to… not to listen to them but it’s so hard.”

He heaved a sigh, passing one of his large hands on his face.

“I don’t know what to do,” he went on. “There’s nothing I can do to help you and… it’s killing me. Please, love… please, come back. I love you so much, if you die, I die too… I can’t…”

His voice broke and he heaved another sigh, letting his head fall onto your stomach. He could feel you breathing under him, his hand still holding yours.

After a while, he couldn’t find the strength to keep his eyelids open, and he finally fell asleep.

In his nightmares, you were dying in his arms…

But suddenly, he felt something quite strange. A tickling on his fingers. A shy hold on his hand… As he was still half-asleep, he thought for a moment that it was one more trick played by sorrow on his mind. But then he opened his eyes.

You were still motionless, your eyes closed, breathing softly. He turned his attention to your hand that he held in his large palm…

And your fingers were now holding his.

His eyes widened as he slowly straightened, staring at your hand covered with his. He pinched his leg hard, but he felt the pain. He was awake… and you had moved…

He turned quickly towards you, staring at your peaceful and deadly pale frame. Slowly, carefully, he stroked your cheek, the back of his long fingers brushing softly your skin.

“Love?” he called in a hushed whisper. “Can you hear me? My love, open your eye, please.”

He ran a hand in his dishevelled hair in frustration, before focusing on you again.

He hadn’t dreamt. You had taken his fingers in yours…

“Y/N? Can you hear me?”

He saw your eyes moving under your eyelids, and heard your breathing getting louder as you took deeper breaths.

Perhaps you were merely dreaming…

“M y love, please,” he whispered again, forcing himself not to lose hope yet. “Please, wake up.”

Your eyelids fluttered, and slowly opened…

When he fell in your deep eyes, he thought his heart was going to explode with joy.

He took your face in his hands, slowly calling your name.

You stared at him for a moment, studied his dishevelled hair and eyes swollen and reddened by an evident lack of sleep, his beard that had grown since that day on the lake…

The memories of the event came back to you, and your heart was tightened with fear and worry.

You tried to speak, but you needed to clear your dry throat several times to make your voice obey your will again.

“Are you okay?” you breathed, your voice hoarse. “Are you hurt?”

He let out a laugh, and finally realized that he was crying again…

“I’m fine,” he whispered, stroking your cheeks with his thumbs.

“You look terrible,” you smiled.

He laughed again.

“You were asleep for more than a week.”

You raised an eyebrow.

“Really?”

Caspian nodded.

“You remained unconscious, and there was nothing we could do to help… there was nothing I could do to help you, to make you wake up… I thought… I thought I was going to lose you…”

His voice broke, and you forced your hand to rise to cup his cheek despite your numb muscles, and he leaned into your soft touch.

“How could I leave you?” you breathed.

You saw his lower lip tremble, and he couldn’t control the sob that shook his body.

You were tired, and numb, and every movement was painful, your muscles stretching after too much time spent still, but you ignored those signs, and wrapped your arms around Caspian as his head fell in the crook of your neck.

“Let’s be clear on something,” he whispered in your ear. “You’re never scaring me like this ever again.”

You let out a laugh

“That’s a deal.”

He dropped sweet kisses on your neck and cheek, before staring intensely at you again.

“Thank you, for coming back to me, love…”

You smiled, running our fingers in his hair.

“I’ll always come back to you, Caspian.”


End file.
